Summary of Student Organization Involvement at the University of Oregon: 2021-2022 and Fall-Winter of 2022-2023
Amy N. Warnock
Office of Assessment and Research | Division of Student Life | University of OregonFor full functionality of features, please download this document and open it in your browser.
Suggested Citation
Please use the following when referencing this document.
Warnock, A. N. (2023). Summary of Student Engage Data from 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 at the University of Oregon. Office of Assessment and Research, Division of Student Life, University of Oregon.
Contact Information
If you have questions, feedback, or requests for additional information, please contact Amy Warnock at awarnoc7@uoregon.edu.
Last Updated
March 23, 2023 | 09:41 PM PDT
Overview
Purpose
Using data from the Campus Labs Engage online platform at the University of Oregon (UO), this document summarizes students’ involvement with student organizations during the 2021-2022 academic year and Fall and Winter term of 2022-2023. The Engage website serves as the hub and interface for the administration, management, and student involvement for hundreds of UO student organizations and events, falling under the parent organizations of:
- Associated Students of the University of Oregon (ASUO)
- Center for Student Involvement (CSI)
- Club Sports
- Fraternity and Sorority Life (FSL)
- Student Life (SL)
The goals of this project were to provide a more concrete understanding of:
- the organizations students are participating in,
- how they are involved and engaging,
- whether there are differences or gaps in level of involvement between student subgroups, and
- whether involvement or engagement has changed over time.
Although organization involvement data has been recorded in the Engage platform to some degree since 2012, the data are most complete and reliable starting with 2021-2022 due to updates in policies requiring and/or strongly encouraging student organization leaders’ and members’ use of the system. As such, the analyses were limited to the 2021-2022 year and the data available for 2022-2023 at the time this project was completed (September 2022 to early March 2023).
About Student Organizations
For more information about organizations, including their descriptions and additional information, see Table 3.
About the Engage Platform
Student use of Engage includes the administration and management of organizations, creation and tracking of events and event attendance, and maintenance of leadership and member positions. Engage platform user accounts are automatically created for students upon matriculation to the UO. Member, officer, and leadership position status must be manually set by the student or organization administrators. For the majority of organizations, members self-select and there are not barriers to admission. Other organizations, such as Fraternities or Sororities, have closed member lists. Start date and end dates are logged for all positions. Importantly, membership does not necessarily reflect engagement with an organization as anyone who is interested in an open organization can join as a member.
Organization of Contents
In the following tables and figures, student involvement is summarized and disaggregated by various student demographic characteristics (e.g., level, gender, race/ethnicity, etc.) and academic year. Demographic data were gathered from UO application records and baseline data collection records of the UO’s Student Wellbeing and Success Initiative (SWaSI) project. All counts and percentages in this report are calculated based on available information (i.e., missing data were excluded).
Description of the Sample
Students included in the sample were those who were members, officers, leaders, or other positions holders of active, valid student organizations in the Engage platform during 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 who were listed in UO enrollment records as being students in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. There was no exclusion criteria for length of enrollment. Students who were enrolled at any point in Fall, Winter, or Spring term of 2021-2022 and Fall and Winter term of 2021-2022 were included. Organization positions were filtered by start date and end date to determine which academic year(s) students were active in.
In all, this analysis identified 7,645 unique students who held 15,386 member, officer, or leadership positions with 370 student organizations at UO during the 2021-2022 academic year. Students ended 3,020 of those positions between the first day of 2021-2022 and the first day of 2022-2023. The average number of memberships and other positions held by students during 2021-2022 was 2.01. The maximum number of memberships/positions held by an individual student was 58.
There were 8,801 unique students who held 17,649 member or leadership positions for 389 student organizations during Fall or Winter term of the 2022-2023 academic year (i.e., positions were active at some point between September 27, 2022 and March 5, 2023). Students ended 1,985 of those positions between September 27, 2022, and March 5, 2023. The average number of memberships and other positions held by students during 2022-2023 was 2.01. The maximum number of memberships/positions held by an individual student was 55.
For descriptives of students by various academic and demographic characteristics, please see Tables 1-2 and Figures 1-17 below.
Overview of Student Characteristics and Demographics
Student involvement data were disaggregated by:
- Student level
- Undergraduate, graduate, etc.
- Undergraduate (Non-admit/Other) = Non-admit and American English Institute students.
- Source: UO records
- Student class
- First-year, sophomore, etc.
- Undergraduate (Non-admit/Other) = Non-admit and American English Institute students.
- Source: UO records
- Major (first listed)
- First major listed for the specified year.
- Source: UO records
- Multiple majors
- Single major or multiple majors.
- Source: UO records
- College of major (first listed)
- College (e.g., Education) of first major listed for the specified year.
- Source: UO records
- College of major (first listed, “Unclassified” excluded)
- College (e.g., Education) of first major listed for the specified year with “Unclassified” excluded (assigned to students without a declared major and non-admit students).
- Source: UO records
- College (e.g., Education) of first major listed for the specified year with “Unclassified” excluded (assigned to students without a declared major and non-admit students).
- Honors College enrollment
- Enrolled or not for the specified year.
- Source: UO records
- Enrolled or not for the specified year.
- Gender
- Source: UO and SWaSI records
- Sexuality
- LGBQ+ = students who reported their sexual orientation as any of the following: Asexual, Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Pansexual, Queer, Questioning or Unsure, or Same-Gender Loving.
- Straight or heterosexual = students whose reported sexual orientation is Straight or heterosexual.
- Source: SWaSI records
- Gender & Sexuality
- LGBTQIA+ = students whose reported gender identity is Nonbinary and/or sexual orientation is LGBQ+.
- Not LGBTQIA+ = students whose reported gender identity is Male or Female and whose reported sexual orientation is Straight or heterosexual.
- Source: UO and SWaSI records
- LGBTQIA+ = students whose reported gender identity is Nonbinary and/or sexual orientation is LGBQ+.
- Race/ethnicity (categories expanded)
- Based on federal reporting categories.
- At the Office of Assessment and Research (OAR), we haved updated some terminology to be more contemporary and inclusive (e.g., Black = “Black or African American,” Latin* = “Hispanic or Latino,” Multiracial/ethnic = “Two or more races,” Native American or Alaska Native = “American Indian or Alaska Native”).
- We have opted to use the term Latin* to “serve as a deliberate intervention—a pause for readers to consider the various ways in which people from Latin American origin and diaspora in the United States may identify” (Salinas, 2020; see also Lozano et al., 2021).
- Source: UO records
- Race/ethnicity (categories collapsed)
- Expanded categories further combined for the purpose of granular reporting (cell sizes < 10 are not permitted in order to protect student privacy and confidentiality).
- Traditionally Marginalized = students whose race/ethnicity in UO records is Asian, Black, Latin*, Native American or Alaska Native, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
- Source: UO records
- Expanded categories further combined for the purpose of granular reporting (cell sizes < 10 are not permitted in order to protect student privacy and confidentiality).
- Age range binned (23 or under, 24+)
- Source: UO records
- Nontraditional status
- Based on veteran status, age (24 or older), and transfer credits (> 30).
- Source: UO records
- Oregon residency status
- Students eligbile for in-state tuition.
- Source: UO records
- First-generation status
- First-generation status was calculated based on students’ parents’ and/or guardians’ highest level of education.
- Students are considered first-generation if none of their parents/guardians obtained a four-year college degree or higher. If they report having at least one parent/guardian with this level of education or higher, they are considered continuing-generation.
- Source: UO and SWaSI records
- Students are considered first-generation if none of their parents/guardians obtained a four-year college degree or higher. If they report having at least one parent/guardian with this level of education or higher, they are considered continuing-generation.
- First-generation status was calculated based on students’ parents’ and/or guardians’ highest level of education.
- Global socioeconomic status
- Lower, middle, upper.
- Source: SWaSI records
- Family social class
- Lower (Working Class and Lower-Middle Class), Middle (Middle Class), and Upper (Upper-Middle Class, and Upper Class).
- Source: SWaSI records
- Lower (Working Class and Lower-Middle Class), Middle (Middle Class), and Upper (Upper-Middle Class, and Upper Class).
With the exception of gender, sexuality, first-generation status, and socioeconomic variables, this information was pulled from UO academic and application records. Gender and first-generation status were calculated based on a combination of UO application records and SWaSI baseline data. Gender identity from SWaSI records was prioritized over UO application records data because it is more inclusive. In the cases where gender was not available from SWaSI, it was back-filled with gender from application records. Similarly, first-generation status was calculated first based on UO records, back-filling with SWaSI records data as necessary. Sexual orientation and socioeconomic information (students’ perceptions of their global socioeconomic status and their family’s social class) were exclusively gathered from SWaSI records. A combined gender and sexuality variable was calculated based on gender and sexuality.
Limitations
When reviewing the findings in this document, please be aware of the following limitations and keep them in mind.
- The degree to which members are or are not involved and engaged with the organization they are a member of is unknown. Members could be highly involved, merely interested in the organization, or anywhere in between.
- Although membership, roster, and event administration and management is strongly encouraged and in some instances, required by UO policy, it is possible that some members have not self-identified as such in the Engage platform.
Key Findings
The number of unique students involved with organizations during 2021-2022 was similar to the number involved during the 2022-2023 academic year.
As of March of the 2022-2023 academic year, there were 2263 more positions and 19 more student organizations than during the entire 2021-2022 academic year.
Overall involvement for most student subgroups is comparable between 2021-2022 and 2022-2023.
There are more students with multiple majors involved with student organizations so far in 2022-2023 compared to 2021-2022.
The number of involved students identifying as LBGQ+ and/or LGBTQIA+ has increased from 2021-2022 to 2022-2023.